LORD KITCHENER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2576, 10 August 1909, Page 5

LORD KITCHENER.

TO BE MADE FIELD-MARSHAL.

(WILL SUCCEED TO MEDITER-

RANEAN COMMAND

'United Pkkss Association— Copyuigut. ' LONDON, August 8. Lord Kitchener will be promoted to the position of Feld-Marshal on his vacating the command in India. He represents the King at the forthcoming Japanese manoeuvres, and thence proceeds to Australia and New Zealand to inspect the troops and advise on questions of defence upon the lines decided upon by the Imperial Conference. Afterwards he succeeds the Duke of Connaught in the Mediterranean command, the importance of which will be greatly increased.

Lord Kitchener will be- given a seat on the Committee of Imperial Defence.

LORD KITCHENER’S FUTURE WORK.

THE “TIMES” MILITARY CORRESPONDENT’S SPECULATIONS.

(Received August 10, 12.10 a.m.) •;] LONDON, August 9.

The “Times” military .correspondent foreshadows the gradual formation by Lord Kitchener of an efficient mobile military force in the Mediterranean, and the reorganisation of the heterogenous Anglo-African forces for defensive purposes.. He adds that it is conceivable that the Mediterranean will be the theatre wherein,, inj certain eventualities, the forces of the British oversea Dominions might, effect initial concentration. A commander-in-chief having a perfect knowledge of Indian, Egyptian, and African problems, and in close touch with the military ideas and aspirations of Australasia, would he in a specially favorable position to -direct the forces which might gravitate to the Middle Sea.

[ln August 1907 it was officially announced that the Duke of Connaught would take up the appointment of Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief and High Commissioner in the Mediterranean. It was a subject of remar'k' that nothing had taken place to indicate in a special manner the importaice of creating this new military appointment. The force under his Royal Highness’s command comprised the garrisons of Gibraltar and Malta, detachments in Crete and Cyprus, and the British troops quartered in Egypt and the Soudan. For Colonial administration and civil and political- affaire the Colonial Governors and the Agent and Consul-Agent in Egypt are responsible. It was stated that the result of this 1 arrangement would be that the Duke of Connaught would be able to devote his attention to inspection and training, and to questions of 'strategy and defence. Where matters of policy involve military consideration he was to be consulted by the representatives of the Foreign and Colonial Offices before they laid their views on such questions before their respective departments. The Duke had expressed the hope that he would be able to introduce greater homogeneity into the work and training of the troops in his command. The Duke of Connaught's expectations have evidently not been fulfilled, for his recent resignation was duel to his opinion that the position was virtually a sinecure. The present Government, in pursuance of the traditional Liberal policy of making the Army a> field,-for the exercise of “economy,” reduced the garrisons in the Mediterranean, and removed some of the heaviest guns from Gibraltar. These measures, by diminishing the importance of the command, and impairing the efficiency of the forces under his charge, may ’ have had somewhat to do with causing the-Duke to ccme to the decision that his position was a sinecure.

POSITION IN THE MEOITERRA- ; NEAN. ■ I | • • STRENGTH OF BRITISH FLEET. - • / ‘ V-| 5/• ( v ; The emphasis placed by Mr. BaMSpur, in bis recently reported speech, on British responsibilities in the Mediterraaican and the proposed appointment of Lord Kitchener to the command of the Mediterranean land forces, draw attention to foreign naval development in that part of the world. . According to Mr. H. W. Wilson, the a Austrian sKips actually complete and in service at the present moment are of small type. There are three battleships of 10,6000 tons each and- very high speed, heavily armed; three smallei battleships of 8300 tons; and three coast defence ships of 5600 tons each—a total of nine ships designed for fighting in line. There are also three armored cruisers, carrying heavy batteries for their size, and steaming fairly fast. One very speedy torpedo scout is now approaching completion; and there aio twelve modern destroyers and twentyfour large and modern torpedo-boats, besides a considerable number of old torpedo-boats, cruisers, and gunboats o little fighting value. But even as it stands to-day the Austrian fleet is h° .greatly inferior' .to : the British Mediteiranean Fleet, which has been rouen weakened of recent years and whicii now only.counts six battleships/ foui armoured cruisers, and eleven antiquated destroyers —no excessive force to •patrol the 2000 miles of water from Gibraltar to Port Said.” . , The inception of a modern, P? wt T:Ti’ •ocean-going Austrian fleet was m iyu/, when Austria laid down “three very powerful battleships .of the Franz I erdinand class. These are more powerful than any battleships in the British nav y except the Dreadnought class, and they are now well advanced 5 thought they are not expected to be actually m service before the end of 1910.. Each o them carries four 12in. and eight 9.4 in. guns, besides a number of small weapons. They will be very fast, steaming over, twenty knots, so that they will be speedier by a knot than, the two British ’battleships of the Lord Nelson class, which they most resemble. Four even more powerful ships are to be begun this year, two in Austria and the other -two probably in Germany. There are hopes that' all four will be readv in 1912 though the orders for them have not actually been given. newspaper reports they will be larger m"A more heavily armored than the JMk vßritish .Dreadnoughts, carrying i TWk-r ten or twelve 12in. guns and a of 6in. guns,, and steaming twenty-two or twenty-four knots while their disnlaeemont mb he slightly over ■20,000 tons. None of our older batrte-

CABLE NEWS.

ships could meet them with any chance ox success. The rapid construction of these ships is believed in some quarters to b° one of the quids which Germany nad obtained Lor her quo of intervention on Austria’s behalf in the Balkan crisis. It is not the habit of German diplomacy to work for nothing, and it is manifest that a strong Austrian fleet in the south of Europe might in many circumstances be of immense value to the, German Admiralty.'” Recent cablegram furthers show that Austria-Hungary and Italy have each a programme of four latest-type" armored ships, or eight in all. Recent writers at Home have suggested that they will be ready by the end of 1912. Taking Britain’s Dreadnoughts in 1912 as being 20 in number, and Germany’s as being 13 (the official or lower number) the eight Austrian and Italian battleships, if ready, would give the Triple Alliance 21 Dreadnoughts as against 20. It is the sudden rise of the AustroItalian big ship element, or at any rate the Austrian half of it, that has caused man-/ English writers to point to the British colonies as the needed counterbalancing force, and as being, indeed, the only means of attempting to maintain a two-Power standard .-Lord Rosebery summed up the position as the “bursting out of navies everywhere.” Mr. H. W. Wilson writes:—“An Austrian fleet in the with no force to hold it in cheek, would have Malta, Cyprus, and Egypt at its mercy. Austria would find not the slightest difficulty in despatching anexpeditionary force to any of these points, and once in control of Egypt and dominating the Suez Canal she' could despatch her smaller ships to attack commerce proceeding by the Cape route to . India. It is thus quite clear that in war a powerful British fleet must be' stationed in the Mediterranean, unless the British people are prepared to see their commerce destroyed, thir communication with the East interrupted, their fortresses in the Mediterranean one by one attacked and captured, and terrible blows struck against their Empire. In Nelson’s days, when the British navy was too weak to meet the demands of defence and commerce protection, it abandoned the Mediterranean. But conditions have changed so completely as to render this impossible to-day. The Austrian personnel is 14,000 strong, ad in war the mobilisation of the reserves would expand its strength to 30,000. The training and organisation of the Austrian fleet remarkable; the ships are in excellent order, and manoeuvre well. With a navy which will certainly be the most efficient in the Mediterranean in the near future, unless Britain suddenly awakens from her slumber, the Austrian Government may reasonably entertain daring ambitions. No opposition is to be feared from France so long as the French army is distinctly weaker than the German, and is not certain of Russian support. Italy alone, or even in combination with France, is hardly strong enought to resist German-Aus-trian pressure; indeed, Italian naval officers declare that the Italian coastline will be absolutely at the. mercy of the new Austrian ships when these are complete, unless the Italian navy is reconstructed and reorganised. It looks, then, as though when the fatal hour comes, Austria. oould take what she' wanted in the Near East, and once more dictate her terms as in the recent Balkan crisis, while if a storm should arise in the north of Europe her powerful new navy will be a terrible menace and embarrassment to any enemy of her ally, Germany.”